Deadline Approaching for Moody’s Mega Math Challenge 2012

Moody’s Mega Math (M3) Challenge is a free, Internet-based, applied math contest for teams of high school juniors and seniors. Teams of three to five participants are asked to solve an open-ended, realistic problem, using any free, publicly available, and inanimate sources of information focused on a real-world issue in 14 hours.

Previous challenges have included topics such as how the 2009 Stimulus Act would generate jobs in the U.S. economy and what measures need to be taken to reduce the impact of long-term drought in the American Southwest.

Challenges that use scenarios that show ways in which they could use it in their lives and careers.

There are several sample problems available on the Challenge website for practice. Students participating in past challenges have tackled everything from the numbers behind the U.S. Census to the effect of the stimulus package on the American economy to determining the unintended consequences of ethanol as biofuel.

Xiao-Yu Wang, a past winner, said:

“Math often times is learned and used only in the abstract, in classes and even other math competitions. The real-world application of math is lost. This contest is a change from that.

“We analyzed a major political, social, and economic issue through mathematics. It really opened my eyes to the world of mathematical modeling not only in economic fields, but also in other fields such as physical and biological sciences.”